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Four Keys to Exit Planning for Your Clients

portrait of Christine Nicholson
Nicholson
 Christine Nicholson is an award-winning U.K. business mentor, a Top 50 Woman in Accounting 2020 honoree, and a regular keynote speaker about succession and exit planning. Her latest book, SELL IT, helps entrepreneurs with the hardest part of their journey: leaving their business in the hands of others.

How to guide them to success.

By Christine Nicholson 
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

Have you ever thought about how many of your clients have a thriving business – one that’s been their driving passion and source of income for years? How many of them are starting to think about stepping away from the day-to-day responsibilities and passing on the reins? And how many do you believe are fully prepared for that transition? Not many, I suspect. This is where your role in exit planning comes into play.

MORE: Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
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Exit planning is a strategy for business owners to transition their business successfully to new ownership or management. With a grasp of the business’s financials and years of insights from compliance services, accountants are perfectly positioned to engage business owners in many aspects of the exit process. You can help businesses prepare a comprehensive exit strategy, addressing all potential challenges and contingencies. Here’s how you can really make a difference.
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CLIENT ACCOUNTING SERVICES

Matt Tait: Why Franchising Is the Next Big Thing for CAS | Big 4 Transparency

Why private equity may accelerate – not kill – entrepreneurship in accounting.

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Big 4 Transparency
With Dominic Piscopo, CPA

Decimal CEO Matt Tait joins Dominic Piscopo to explain why his CAS firm is franchising its playbook, how it drives 50%-plus margins with queue-based delivery and daily book maintenance, and why private equity may accelerate – not kill – entrepreneurship in accounting.

MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

Tait says the biggest accounting story right now isn’t just AI, it’s the industry’s next operating model.

On the Big 4 Transparency, Tait says Decimal started as a “different” CAS and bookkeeping firm while simultaneously building an internal operating system for running a modern accounting shop. In under six years, Decimal has served 1,000+ businesses and grown to 100+ employees – and now it’s taking its playbook to market through franchising. READ MORE →

MARKETING & SALES

Five Best Practices for Sales and Conversion

two women shaking hands across desk

Plus a six-step process for ushering prospects through to virtual CFO services.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

An important part of the overall process within the company is sales and conversion. For our virtual CFO service, there’s a six-step lead conversion process from when the prospect discovers our website to when the engagement begins.

MORE by Jody Grunden
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The Sales and Conversion Process

Our sales and conversion process includes six steps.

Here’s what that looks like and the typical timeline: READ MORE →

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Alan Whitman: Why the Next Big CPA Firms Won’t Look Like CPA Firms | Gear Up for Growth

And why culture matters more than ever.

Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

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Alan Whitman isn’t trying to build a better CPA firm. He’s trying to replace it.

At Nichols Cauley, the former Baker Tilly CEO is recasting the traditional accounting practice as a “financial services company”—a structure that blends tax, insurance, risk, and transaction advisory into a single, continuous client relationship.

MORE ALAN WHITMAN: PE Deal Tracker Update: Alan Whitman Plants a Flag in the Private Equity Landscape | Breaking the Mold with PE Backing | Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change | Moss Adams-Baker Tilly Merger: Bigger Isn’t Better. Better Is Better.| Unlocking the Secrets to Smart Growth 

MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | MORE Gear Up for Growth | MORE CPA Trendlines streaming videos and podcasts here

The goal, he tells Jean Caragher in this episode of Gear Up for Growth, is not to expand services around the edges, but to collapse them into one integrated model designed to “manage, protect, and grow” client wealth in a recurring loop.

The shift reflects a broader rethinking across the profession, in which private equity capital, client demand for one-stop advisory services, and advances in AI are pushing firms beyond the partnership model that has defined accounting for decades.

Having previously led transformational growth at Baker Tilly, Whitman rejects the notion that rapid growth damages culture.

“That’s hogwash,” he says. “Culture comes down to one word: trust.” READ MORE →